I hope that I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider to be the most enviable of titles, the character of an honest man.

George Washington

Though older than I care to admit, I didn't have the privilege of living during the Presidency of George Washington. I have, however, had the privilege of living in a nation that was shaped by men and women of who shared the integrity and the faith of Washington.

And, though I hadn't the privilege of living during his time of leadership, I miss George Washington and... I am deeply saddened by what passes for leadership in our times.

But I am not discouraged, for I know that God reigns in Heaven and that honest men and women will someday rise again to power. Maybe those honest men and women can include you and I. It's something to think about.

When the wicked rise to power, people go into hiding; but when the wicked perish the righteous thrive.

Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that a national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.George Washington

A federal judge – a man apparently selected for his political rather than judicial skills – just overturned Texas law which forbids homosexuals to marry. I don’t know if this particular judge is familiar with George Washington, but I do know that he is woefully ignorant of the principles that Washington and the other founding fathers believed. And, he is either woefully ignorant or woefully disdainful of what God has decided on this particular sin.

We have a President who said very plainly that he believed marriage was between a man and a woman when he originally ran for office. Five years later he seems to have “repented” and has instructed his minions in the justice department to do the same. How does one change on something as settled as the 6,000 year old definition of marriage in so short a time? He does so by allowing his morality to be swayed by personal whims, political currents, and a complete rejection of God’s word.

You, perhaps, might know of people who believe that God has remained silent on homosexuality. They are wrong! Consider the following from the word of God:

Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city ofSodom – both young and old – surrounded the house. They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we may have sex with them.” Genesis 19:4-5, NIV Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah – from the Lord out of the heavens. Genesis 19:24, NIV

If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be upon their own heads. Leviticus 20:13, NIV

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. I Cor. 6:9-11, NKJV

The point is that in all three Bible divisions of the history of mankind –the Patriarchal age, the Mosaic age, and the Christian age – the sin of homosexuality has been clearly defined. In the Patriarchal age, God wiped out an entire region for multiple sins, including the one – homosexuality- that was also referred to by the name of the famous town that was destroyed because of the sin: Sodom. In the Mosaic age, the sin carried the death penalty.

But, in the Christian age – the age in which we live – the sin can be forgiven, just like all other sins, if we will repent and have the sin washed away. The one thing that we cannot do, with any sin, is to go along with it.

A President may praise the sin and become an effective spokesman and type of perverted “high priest” for homosexuality. A judge may abandon Constitutional principles and authority and overturn godly laws. A majority of citizens who have been taught political correctness instead of academics in our schools may agree, but it doesn’t matter.

God defines sin, not popular opinion. How far we have fallen from the moral standards of the Bible, and of our own nation when it was young and consulted God’s word for its moral standards!

The story of Alvin York is one we don't hear much anymore but it is one, if you have a few moments, that is worth hearing. As a young man who grew up in Tennessee, Alvin was anything but religious. Anything, that is, until he met a young woman named Gracie Williams. His love for her was such that he began to attend church services, and eventually his love for Christ became such that he decided to serve the Lord for the rest of his days.

Convinced that killing was wrong, he initially refused to serve during WWI, but he came to realize that duty to God and Country sometimes requires doing just that. In the Battle of the Argonne Forest, his squad was pinned down by German machine gun fire. They were close to being completely decimated when, with all of his superior officers killed or wounded, the command was turned over to him. Not wanting to risk any more of the lives of his men, Alvin went up the hill and began to "clean out" the German machine gun nests. In that battle Alvin C. York came face to face with the decision to take the lives of the enemy or allow his own men to be wiped out. Since he was wearing the uniform of the Allies, he knew his duty was clear.

His decision resulted in one of the greatest acts of personal heroism ever recorded in the annals of war. That decision led to Marshall Ferdinand Foch, the Commander in Chief of the Allied Armies in WWI, to say, "What you did was the greatest thing accomplished by any private soldier of all the armies of Europe." His decision led to his being awarded the highest medals of honor a foreigner could receive by both the French and Italian Armies, and the highest honor that any American soldier can receive from his own country - the American Medal of Honor!

So just what did Alvin York do, once he decided to fight the enemy in order to save American lives? In this single battle he was credited with 25 confirmed killings of the enemy, with knocking out no less than 35 machine gun nests, and with the near single handed capture of 132 German soldiers. There is no telling how many lives of his fellow soldiers that he saved that day, but make no mistake: Alvin C. York was one of the greatest heroes of any war ever fought in the history of America.

Afterwards, when Alvin returned to the states, he was greeted by one of the biggest parades ever given an American soldier. He was confronted with countless offers for endorsements of products that would have made him rich. Since he had been dirt poor all of his life, the offers must have been very tempting indeed. What was his response to this cashing in of his heroism?

Two quotes stand out. First, he said, "It's over; let's just forget about it." Second, and perhaps one of the greatest things that a U.S. soldier or any soldier has ever been quoted as saying was this:

"This uniform ain't for sale".

Alvin York was a patriot. He was an example as to what every good soldier should be - not one who seeks glory from his necessary service, but one who seeks to serve his country and to protect his fellow soldiers.

We have a similar commission as Christians. We are to serve God. That service sometimes means fighting those who have made themselves enemies of God. We don't engage in this conflict for the glory, but we don't shirk our duty either. We just do it! Sometimes, when that duty is done particularly well, men will be tempted to make a profit from their service in the Lord's army. Sometimes, we as soldiers in the army of God become tempted to enjoy the pleasures of this world as a reward for our service. Sometimes, we as Christians would like for our service to be rewarded here on earth - perhaps we would like to even enjoy the pleasures of the flesh and see how the world lives.

But that's not what we are here for... because when we put on our Lord and savior in baptism (Galatians 3:26-27) we essentially put on the uniform of Christ.

And, that uniform is not for sale!

May God bless all of our heroes who serve God and Country in the selfless manner of Sergeant York, and may God bless everyone who serves in our Lord's kingdom for the honor of their Master and the benefit of their fellow man!

"Endure hardships with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs - he wants to please his commanding officer."

II Timothy 2:3-4, NIV

"Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life."

"Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

John Adams

One of the greatest failures of our modern era is the almost complete lack of teaching of the constitution to our children. An even greater threat is the teaching of this constitution without an understanding of the intent of the men who wrote it. But the greatest failure of this generation, in my opinion, has been the near total lack of teaching of God's morality and religion.

The success of the deists and atheists of our era has been nothing short of amazing. They have convinced the masses that God is dangerous in the public and that He must be completely removed from schools, government, and the public arena. It has only been a logical progression from that point to remove the discussion of the Constitution from our schools, for that discussion could lead to dangerous exploration of who these people were who gave us that constitution.

And just as the chaining of the Bible to the pulpit led to the Dark Ages, the chaining of the Constitution to the sole realm of the judicial system has led to a type of modern day dark age wherein only those who really "know" how to use the Constitution are allowed to do so.

Now, these modern day pharisees and priests of the Constitution have led a once righteous people to believe that it is okay to kill your unborn babies and your sickly grandparents. They have ruled that the activities that God had declared perverse, are normal, and that anyone thinking different better keep those thoughts to themselves or suffer the full-blown wrath of the legal system. They have created a welfare system comparable to the Roman era of "Bread and Circuses" in order to bribe the masses to keep their slave-masters in power, or to at least dope them up enough not to care who is ruling over them. They have decreed that the schools teach as science the theory that men come from goo, and forbid these same schools from teaching the counter (and correct science) that men were created by God.

And our modern day government has done all of this because at some point we decided that we no longer had to be a moral and religious people. And at whatever moment we reached that critical tipping point, the Constitution became wholly inadequate for government.

How's that working out for you?

As serious as the rejection and denial of our constitution's religious roots has proven to be, it is nothing compared to what has happened in the modern day church. In many ways the decline of the church has been the primary cause of the decline of America. The church today is either shrinking into insignificance, or has become a religious realm of bread and circuses that give the people just enough religion with their entertainment to believe that they are practicing Christians. They believe this because the Bible is rarely discussed in some churches, or so narrowly taught in others that God's word is hardly recognizable.

So, what is the solution? That part is simple. You first must start reading the Bible for yourself to find out what it says, and then you must obey. Second (and this part only works after you have accomplished the first) is to find out about the real founding of America and start studying the Constitution so that you will know what it actually says.

Once you have done these things, you can then teach your children. Then, maybe, they can clean up this mess that we created when we decided that you could be a Christian without Christ, and that you could be ruled by a Constitution without God. There is hope for the church and, therefore, hope for America, but we have to get busy right now.

Are you up for the task... or are you one of those who believes that our Constitution is adequate for the government of an immoral and irreligious people?

"Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me... Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you."

Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people. Proverbs 14:34, NIV

Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise;

give thanks to Him and praise His name;

For the LORD is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations. Psalms 100:4-5, NIV

America is great, because America is good! So said Alexis de Tocqueville some 200 years ago when he came to America to try and find out what made her so special. He visited the farms and the factories, the mines and the harbors. He considered her democracy and even her great Constitution. But it was not, young Alexis said, until he visited the churches and saw their pulpits aflame with righteousness that he discovered what made America great:

It was her goodness!

But he had a warning for Americans of all generations. He said that if America ever ceased to be good, that America would cease to be great. He was right... to our shame he was right! He was not right because he was some sort of a prophet. He was right because he knew what he saw and he saw America's greatness in her great faith.

I think that it is time for us to do our part in returning America to greatness. We will not do that by rejecting our welfare mentality and returning to a the Christian work ethic of a dollar's work for a dollar's pay, though that is needed. We will not return America to greatness by ceasing to put our children and grandchildren's generation into debt, though that is also needed. We will not even do it by simply removing the wicked leaders that we seem to prefer, though that is needed.

The way that America will return to greatness is by humbling ourselves before the Almighty God, repenting of our evil deeds, and returning both God and Christ to their rightful positions of Lord and Master. No, I am not talking about making America a theocracy. I am talking about returning America to the place that started her greatness: With individuals who believed in self-sufficiency, self-determination and self-government, but who also believed that in order to have these things we will have to deny our selves and, on an individual basis, turn to God!

So, what does that have to do with Thanksgiving? Simply this: It will not be until we turn to God as a grateful people! Grateful for the land he allowed us to be born into. Grateful for His Word which directs us. Grateful for a Constitution written by a people and for a people who knew that God was King and Jesus was Lord. And when we recognize with gratitude these great truths, I believe that we will want them back...

for it is only a thankful people who can ever be great. And it is only a grateful nation that can ever be blessed!So may God bless America, as with thanksgiving and gratitude, we turn our hearts, our families, and our nation back over to the only One who can so bless us!